Conscientious Objector In The Film Soldier Of Conscience

This means that people are "trained," forced under extreme pressure, to give up their moral independence and substitute the false dignity of the state and the military. The substitute values are forced upon recruits under such slogans as loyalty to one’s fighting unit, courage, honor, and discipline. But to give up one’s moral self-government is to give up one’s

to follow the Nazi demands, and had no will to stand up against them. During the Second

York reported to Camp Gordon, Georgia for his basic training. His assignment was in Company G, 328th Infantry, 82nd Division (Beattie et al., 2000). While Private York resigned himself to be a Soldier, his mother and pastor continued the process to exempt him from the service (Perry, 1997). The Department of War accepted his request and sent him the documents for his signature. At that time, Private York began to doubt his about his decision to become a conscientious objector; therefore, it took some time to think about his commitment to his country and his commitment to his faith (Perry,

Fighting a war takes courage, but this courage isn’t utilized solely on the battlefield. It is around late 1777 to mid 1778, and George Washington’s troops were camped at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. This winter lodging is located on the Schuylkill River 18 miles northwest of Philadelphia, where the British are encamped. Supplies are running low and Valley Forge is exposed to the elements, leading to casualties from sickness, exposure, and starvation. Washington’s soldiers are now faced with a decision: Do they stay, reenlist, and keep fighting, or do they leave for home as soon as their nine month enlistment is over in February? If I had been in that scenario, I would have reenlisted because there is a need for able soldiers, Washington is

In his speech “Duty, Honor, Country” General MacArthur makes it clear that he disagrees with the transcendental idea of civil disobedience. In his speech to an audience of U.S. military cadets, General MacArthur states that there are three words all people should all live by. He explains, “ Duty, Honor, Country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.” (Duty, Honor, Country) He then goes on to explain how these are the words that people should use to base their everyday lifestyle off of. He claims these words should be used to provide courage, gain faith, and find hope in the lives of all people. He then continous on to subtly call out the non approvers of his motto as he states, “ The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase. Every pedant, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every troublemaker, and I am sorry to say, some others of an entirely different character, will try to downgrade them even to the extent of mockery and ridicule.” (Duty, Honor, Country) By saying all people should live their life off of the same three words, General MacArthur is going against the transcendental idea of civil

Some soldiers felt that their family needed them way more than the army. Soldiers from Arkansas were warned that Indians were scalping people’s heads close to their homes (Randell). The difficult conditions of the home-front hurt the soldiers families (McGuire). The women had a hard time supporting their children. The family all had to get jobs while their fathers and husbands were fighting (“Home”). Many could not handle the stress, so they wrote to them pleading them to desert and return home. Soldiers viewed the war as choosing between loyalty to their families or loyalty to the army-- Most chose their family (McGuire). More and more men started deserting in the 3rd year of the war (Weitz). They lacked the drive to fight and became tired of fighting and being away from their families. For many soldiers, deserting was easy because they were stationed so close to home (McGuire).

This formulation introduces the concept of doing something for the right reason not for an ulterior motive. The character of the motive is what dictates the adherence to the imperative. This is possible with autonomy, the decision to act according to moral duty without outside influence.

History indicates that obedience in the context of a nation is most successful when people see substantial reasons to obey the orders of a government and its subdivisions. During World War II the American military defeated fascism on various geographical fronts. Although it was not mandatory to serve in the US military, many volunteers were ready to fight for American values like individual freedom and democracy. This created what Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth H. Wenker calls autonomous obedience (Walker, 1981). According to the Professor of Philosophy at the US Air-Force Academy,

Obedience is thought to enable the military to operate effectively and organized which is very important during all military situations. While civilians question why they have to follow rules and reasons of why they don’t follow them military don’t have that choice. In the military, soldiers are obligated to follow rules because with one little mistake it can ruin a entire operation or take an innocents life if in war. Following orders prevents you from making disastrous mistakes and doing things that you might regret later on in life. Those who respect the significance of obedience in the military help maintain an internal structure that allows all soldiers to carry out the operation with confidence. The act of disobedience is considered a bad violation, and the person that violates this act is placing himself in a situation that be facing Article 15 charges.

The living quarters of the rearward soldiers were also somewhat different from what the soldiers expected. Robert McNamara, who was the head of the Department of Defense at the time, knew in 1964 that the Vietnam conflict might escalate. He devised a plan he called “dollars for lives” by which he wanted to funnel a lot of the taxpayers dollars into infrastructure and goods transport in Vietnam, and in return by building larger, safer and more elaborate bases and pouring cement into the jungle to build roads. He created a relatively safe and somewhat comfortable environment in South Vietnam for the troops to occupy. Because of this policy, right from the start of the escalation of the conflict in 1965, camps were built like fortresses and bases

for moral improvement that will conduce us to the foundation of good principles. In the novel,

The first world war saw a lot of refusal towards the war effort by men which made the government afraid due to the futile and indiscriminate slaughter of the British army at the battle of the Somme in 1916 where General Haig's tactics failed to show success which resulted in Britain losing a vast majority of soldiers by 1916. Therefore the government feared that they might lose World War one as well because there a lot of casualties which needed to be replaced and many men were becoming antisocial and refused to join the war, these people were known as conscientious objector or short for C.Os. Some C.Os did not want to fight in the war but were keen to do there bit in the war, so they were willing to help out in weapon factories and go to

The Conscientious Objection bill being debated in the UK would not require medical practitioners to participate in withdrawing life-sustaining treatment, among other things. Some, like Iain Brassington, consider the idea a little confusing since not withdrawing treatment is the same as continuing treatment and forcing a treatment on someone is considered to be battery by law. If the proposed law is saying that unwanted treatment should be continued, then there is no way for the bill to respect the patient’s wishes.

Soldiers are trained to always follow orders, and to never question orders. But that belief is somewhat illogical. Soldier's are to obey any lawful order given. But the training involved, the often chaotic nature of battle, and the need to follow authority to maintain survival can lead to a very blurred vision of what is right or wrong. One's animalistic instincts may take over. Sometimes there are such situations when you've stepped over the line. Such as the horrendous act that took place on March 16, 1968 in the village of Son My.

Many of the soldiers had so many missions that sometimes were crazy enough that many thought it was a waste of time and others thought that by doing that will help win the war then that's what we’ll do. For example, the movie Saving Private Brian the soldiers had to travel across the war lose 2 men just to get private brian back home. Private brian found out his brothers had died in combat and that he as the last son should head home with his mother, he refused and stayed with his men. The soldiers that came to get him where not happy for what he decided to do but ended up staying there with them. The other conflict that the war had was religion. Many soldiers wanted to stayed faithful on their believes just like private Doss. My personal favorite movie Hacksaw Ridge showed how he stayed faithful on his religion to never hold a gun or in other words, never kill because that was one of the biggest sins anybody can do. Russ helped more than 30 men survive during war without a gun he got shot on the leg at some point but got rewarded on his achievement plus it was based on a true